The hCG Diet Plan Dangers and Misleading Weight Loss …

Posted: November 7, 2018 at 1:41 pm

Photo:Johanna Parkin/Getty Images

True story: A few years ago, a fabulously fit friend of minewas paid a substantial amount of money by a popular diet pill company to use his image in their advertising. The catch? His current competition-ready state was the “after” pictureand then he had to quickly gain some weight, lose his tan, and pose pouty for the “before” shot.

This kind of duplicity, along with photo retouching, misleading labeling, and other trickery is rampant in the diet supplement industry and has been for a long time. That’s why it was so surprising when the FDA came down hard on the hCG diet plan, declaring it “fraudulent,””dangerous,” and “illegal.” What’s so bad about this particular dietary supplement that makes it so much worse than all the other fakes on the market? (Speaking of Fake, Watch Out for These Health Food Imposters.)

Human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, is a hormone produced during pregnancy to help the baby grow. While it has been used for different purposes in the medical community for decades, it has recently become the centerpiece of the hCG fad diet that uses hCG drops, injections, or pills to suppress appetite and cause weight loss. Here’s what you need to know about the hCG diet plan:

What can you eat on thehCG diet? Turns out, not much. Nicknamed the hCG 500-calorie diet for a reason, following the rules set forth in Pounds and Inches: A New Approach to Obesity, the recognized protocol for the diet, means you only consume 500 calories a day. (To put that in context, the average active adult woman requires2,200 to 2,400 calories a day, according to the National Institutes of Health.) And those 500 calories are limited to specific kinds of animal protein(chicken breast, beef, veal, fresh white fish, crab, lobster, or shrimp), and certain vegetables, fruits, and grains. One noticeable thing that you can’t eat on the hCG diet: oilseven ifthey are healthy cooking oils such as avocado and EVOO. With all that restrictive dieting and energy intake, it’s easy to see how hCG diet results include weight loss. But, FYI,cutting calories to lose weight will almost certainly backfire.

Even if the hCG hormone or the hCG diet did work to suppress appetite, true hCG requires a doctor and a prescription to dispense. In fact, the FDA clearly states that “hCG is not approved for OTC sale for any purpose” and hCG products are illegal. Confused? Most of thesupplements sold over the counter to the public are labeled and sold as “homeopathic,” which means they have leniency regarding what’s actually in these products, becausesupplements are not regulatedand controlled by the FDA.

To be considered a homeopathic treatment by the FDA, it needs to appear in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS), which is essentially the official list of active ingredients that can be used in homeopathic drugs. To be included, a product has to meet very specific and thorough criteria, which these hCG supplements donot.HCG is not on this list and cannot be sold as a homeopathic medication for any purpose, saysElisabeth Walther, a pharmacist at the FDA.

Besides being cranky and hangry,taking illegal hCG shots and pills (yikes) could lead to headaches, fatigue, and more irritability. The severe calorie restriction could set you up forgallstones, an irregular heartbeat, or even an imbalance of the electrolytes that keep the body’s muscles and nerves functioning properly, as we previously reported (Government Cracks Down on HCG Weight-Loss Supplements).

There just isn’t any science-backed evidence that says the hCG diet works, nor that hCG should be used as a weight-loss tool. In fact, the hCG hormone is more often safely used to treat fertility issues, as the hormone is produced by the placenta during pregnancy. (Side Note: Are Opioids Really Necessary After a C-Section?)”In the case of the homeopathic hCG remedies, people think that if they’re losing weight, hCGmust be working,” says Elizabeth Miller, acting director of the FDA’s division of non-prescription drugs and health fraud, in a statement. “But the data simply does not support thisany weight loss is from severe calorie restriction. Not from the hCG.”

Bottom line:The hCG diet only adds to the weight-loss confusion out there. (Be Sure You’re Not Falling for Any of the Top Nine Most Popular Diet Myths.) Quick fixes can be tempting for anyone trying to lose weight, but you should definitelyskip this extreme diet and opt for good nutrition and regular exercise instead. BTW, that’s called the anti-diet, and it’s the healthiest diet you could ever be on. It’s not as exciting, but your body will thank youand if you do lose weight the traditional way, you’re much more likely to keep the weight off for good.